Ma la Huo Guo (Numb & Hot Fondue), Taiyu Phrases, ShiDa Night Market, & Exotic Fruit

So, the typhoon is finally coming tomorrow! Well, tomorrow as in sometime tonight after midnight...I'm kinda excited. I prepared by renting a dvd at the rental store nearby. I got the Alias Season 4, Disc One-it has 8 episodes.

Oh well tonight we went to Tai He restaurant to eat ma la huo guo, which was actually no ma but plenty of la. I didn't bring my camera bc of the rain but it was basically split into a spicy one and a plain one. There wasn't much ma (numbing) because they didn't put any hua jiao in the spicy broth. My uncle said Taiwanese ppl enjoy the spiciness but are not big fans of the numbing effects of hua jiao, which has opiates in its properties that lead to the numbing sensation.

Hua jiao (pic stolen from Google Images), which apparently in English is just called Sichuan pepper haha-I guess in homage to its original source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper). They smell fantastic and when they are fresh they are a vibrant crimson color-I know bc I was in Sichuan where they are used in Sichuanese cuisine.

Oh the car ride over was pretty entertaining. My uncle is a funny guy. He was teaching me more Taiyu as well as some Fuzhou hua. He told a story about "see you tomorrow" and "see you again." Long story short, "see you tomorrow" in Fuzhou hua means jiang you dou mei you le (the soy sauce is gone) hahaha no joke! And "see you again" means jiang you tai xian (the soy sauce is too salty). At the restaurant, one table was speaking Cantonese so then my uncle challenged me to learn Cantonese along with Fuzhou hua, Taiyu, and Mandarin! That would be really awesome. So far I've learned li ho li ho (ni hao), diu (dui), bei bun go che lei (bai fan zai lai yi wan), pai say pai say (bu hao yi se), wan jiang (shi ji), giang (zhou). I'm too lazy to translate both Taiyu and Mandarin, so if you don't know pinyin then just forget it. I've probably butchered the Taiyu spelling anyways.

Then we picked up my cousin (female) to go to the restaurant. Her fiance is going to GA Tech and she's joining him soon as well. She said she'll take me somewhere to eat famous mango dessert and also Taipei 101.

At the restaurant, my uncle told me to try the "Taiwan beef" bc apparently it is different from American beef. I was skeptical but he was right! Taiwanese beef has a more pungent-I guess -beefy flavor if that makes sense, while the texture is the same. (He also said that Taiwanese mangoes are different. I'll be the judge of that).


This photo is also stolen from Google Images. It looked pretty similar to this but the ingredients differed; there definitely weren't any dates in the broth...but the color is pretty similar. There was plenty of hot oil.

After the hot pot feast, my aunt, my cousin, and I went to ShiDa ye shi (night market), which closes earlier than other night markets. Tonight in preparation for the coming TYPHOON most shops were closed or about to close. My aunt bought me some local Taiwanese fruit that I've never had before. It's quite tasty. It has thin, pink skin and white flesh and the texture is crisp like a granny smith but not quite as firm.

It's called lien...something..lien lu? I don't remember, but it's good.

Oh my aunt also got me dragon fruit (huo guo ?) and it's quite interesting to look at. It's a very attractive fruit but quite bland to taste. My aunt said it's highly nutritious but not very tasty. It can be purple or white inside but my aunt said the purple fleshed ones are better tasting and I'm assuming more nutritious due to the beta carotene.


Dragon fruit-side viewDragon fruit-top view

This is what it looks like after being peeled and cut

Close up. Isn't that purple flesh gorgeous? The black seeds are edible too. It's deceiving though...not much taste.



I am SO FULL from the hot pot and exotic fruit...

I'm kind of excited about the typhoon...I hope the electricity doesn't go out like my uncle said it might. Then I won't't be able to use my labtop and my food might spoil. They said a lot of people used to park on this one high spot bc of all the flooding.